Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-22


speak.
Although not belonging to any of the great
secret societies about which there has been SO
much violent discussion, have only words of
praise for those associations which have for
their object the maintenance of right against
wrong. or the reclamation of inebriates, or,
like the score of mutual benefit societies called
by different names, that provide temporary
relief for widows and orphans, and for men
incapacitated by sickness or accident from
earning a livelihood. Had it not been for the
large number of secret labor organizations in
this country monopoly would long ago have,
under its ponderous wheels, ground the labor
ing classes into an intolerable servitude. The
men who want the whole earth to themselves
would have got it before this, had it not been
for the banding together of great secret
organizations And, while we deplore many
things that have been done by them, their
existence is a necessity, and their legitimate
| sphere distinctly pointed out by the providence
| of God Such organizations are trying to
! dismiss from their association all members IN
favor.pf anarchy and social chaos They will
| gradually cease anything like tyranny over
| their members and will forbid violent inter-
| ference with any mans work whether he be-
| longs to their union OF is outside Of it, and
| as that passed in England by the Manchester
! Bricklayers association, which says any man
| found running or working beyond regular
| speed shall be fined two shillings and sixpence
| for the first offense, five shillings for the
second, ten shillings for the third, and if still
| persisting shall be dealt with as the COM
mittee think proper. There are secret socie-
| ties in our colleges that have letters of the
| Greek alphabet for their nomenclature, and
their members are at the very front in
scholarship and irreproachable in morals,
| while there are others the scene of carousal,
and they gamble, and they drink, and they
graduate knowing a hundred times more
about sin than they do of geometry and
Sophocles. In other words, secret societies,
like individuals, are good or bad, are the
means of moral health or of temporal and
eternal damnation. All good people recog
nize the vice of slandering an individual, but
many do not see the sin of slandering an
organization.
There are old secret societies in this and
| other countries, some of them centuries old,
which have been widely denounced as i'm
moral and damaging in their influence, yet
| / have hundreds of personal friends who be-
| long to them, friends who are consecrated to
| God, pillars in the church, faithful in all re-
lations of life, examples Of virtue and piety.
They are the kind of friends whom I would
have for my executors if I am so happy as to
leave anything for my household at the time
of decease, and they are the men whom
would have to carry me out to the last sleep
when am dead. You cannot make me be-
lieve that they would belong to bad institu
lions. They are the men who would stamp
on anything iniquitous, and I would GER
| toll, Ivy folya thaiJ tnStiDoODu in REGARD
to such societies than the testimony of those
who, having been sworn in as members by
their assault upon the society confess them
| selves perjurers. One of these secret societies
gave for the relief of the sick in 1875 in this
country, 81 ,490,274. Some of these societies
have poured very heaven of sunshine and
benediction into the home of suffering.
Several of them are founded on fidelity to
good citizenship and the Bible l have never
taken one of their degrees. They might give
me the grip 1000 times and l would not
recognize it. I am ignorant of their pass
words, and l must judge entirely from the
| outside. But Christ has given us a rule by
which we may judge not only all individuals,
but all societies, secret and open. "By their
fruits ye shall know them" Bad. societies
make bad men, Good societies make good
men A bad man will not stay in a good
society. A good man will not stay in bad
society. Then try all secret societies by two
or three rules.
Test the first Their influence on home, if
you have home That wife soon loses her
influence over her husband who nervously
and foolishly looks upon all evening absence
as an assault on domesticity. How are the
| great enterprises of reform, and art, and
literature, and benefcence and public veal
to be carried on if every man is to have his
world bounded on one side by his front door
step, and on the other side by his back win
dow knowing nothing higher than his own
attic or lower than his own cellar? That
| wife who becomes jealous of her husbands
| attention to art Or literature OF religion or
charity is breaking her own scepter of con-
jugal power I know an instance where
wife thought that her husband was giving too
many nights to Christian service, to charita-
! BILE service, to prayer meetings, and to re-
ligious convocation. She systematically de-
coyed him away until now he attends no
church, waits upon no charitable institution,
and is on a rapid way to destruction, his
morals gone, his money gone, and I fear his
soul gone. Let any Christian wife rejoice
| when her husband consecrates evenings to the
service of humanity, and of God, OF charity,
OF art, or anything elevating.
| But let no man sacrifice home life to secret
society life as many do. can point out to
| you a great many names of men who ar9
| guilty of this sacrilege. They are as genial
as angels at the society room, and rs ugly as
sin at home. They are generous on all sub
| jects of wine suppers, yachts and fast horses,
but they are stingy about the wives dresses
and the children's Shoes Thaspnan hd$made
that which might be healtEsiul influence a
usurper of his affections, and he has married
it, and he is guilty of moYal oigamy. Under
this process the wife, whatever her features,
becomes uninteresting and homely. He be-
comes critical Of her, does not like the dress,
does not like the way she arranges her hair,
| is amazed that he ever was so unromantic as
| to offer her.ha1ld and heart There are secret
| societies where membership always involves
| domestic shipwreck. Tell me that man has
| Joined a certain kind, and tell me nothing
more about him for ten years, and 1 will
write his history if he be still alive. The man
is, a wine guzzler, his wife broken hearted or
prematurely old, his fortune gone OF reduced,
| and his home mere name in directory.
| Here are six secular nights in the week.
"What shall do with themm says the father
and the husband II will give four of these
nights to the improvement and entertain
ment of my family, either at home or in good
neighborhood. will devote one to charitable
institutions. I will devote one to my lodge"
I congratulate you. Here is a man who
says: ''Out of the six secular nights of the
week 1 will devote five to lodges and clubs
and associations and one to the home, which
night l will spend in scowling like March
squall wishing was out spending itas have
spent the other FIVE" That mans obituary Is
written. Not one out of &c, 900 that ever gets
so far on the wrong road ever stops. Gradu-
ally his health will fail through late hours.
and through too much stimulants he will be
first rate prey for erysipelas and rheumatism
of the heart The doctor coming in will at
glance see it is not only present disease he
must fight but years of fast living. The
clergyman, for the sake of the feelings OF the
family, on the funeral day will only talk in
religious generalities. The meP. who got his
yacht in the eternal rapids will not be at the
obsequies. They have pressing engagements
that day. They will serid flowers to the
coffin, will send their wives to utter words Of
sympathy, but they will have engagements
elsewhere They never come. Bring me
mallet and chisel, and will cut on the tomb
stone that mans lepitaph: Blessed are the
dead who die in Che Lord" "No," you say,